2024-02-04 17:25:23 ¶ ●

The undercurrent of animosity Will feels for Hannibal is so unfortunate. Not unfortunate that he feels that way (he should, really) but the nature of it is hard to digest because he’s also dangerously attracted to Hannibal (putting aside in a romantic/sexual sense, rather towards Hannibal as an entity). Mads saying Will’s mothman tableaux might be an attempt at erasing Hannibal makes so much sense to me; the prisoner is a permanent stain in Hannibal’s life that he’s not been “allowed” to truly triumph due to Chiyo’s insistence (or that he has triumphed over him, or maybe he can’t no matter what he does. Could be anything, really). My take on this is that Hannibal decided he could play this another way and trapped both Chiyo and the prisoner in one move; he doesn’t need to kill the prisoner or maybe it’s useless to kill him. Either way, it’s not emotionally detrimental to him that the prisoner dies. Yet Hannibal doesn’t return: 1. There is nothing here for him to return to (he, who is materialistic and needs many resources to live) and 2. He is running away from the past he has no control over in any way (the teacup won’t come back together). What does it mean for Will to visit this festered raw wound of a place and seize authority over the situation? Will, if it is an attempt to erase Hannibal, has done something quite perverted. He invaded Hannibal’s home, opened up the family chest and destroyed whatever he found within it that Hannibal left behind, without permission or knowledge of the owner. A thief who wanted not just riches, but retribution as well.